Starfox: Downfall (Part 1)
by miniman03
Summary: A strange malfunction is causing Cornerian military robots and vehicles to act weirdly and destroy the city. Starfox finds out, and goes down to investigate under the guise of making a speech in celebration of his victory in the Lylat Wars. (Please just power through the first 2.5 chapters, they need work) Please read and review, and make those review brutal! Rated T for violence.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

Author's note: Hello, fellow readers and writers alike! As all of us are, and thus I might not need to mention this, but I shall, I am an aspiring writer/author/whatever. Now, this saying is admittedly overused, but it portrays what I wish to say quite well: this is my very first fanfiction, so please review it as such. I am welcome to any and all reviews that one may give, and it would be great if any more experienced writers could give me some pointers, and/or if anyone could tell me where I have any grammar or spelling errors. Thank you for your time, and please, if possible, enjoy.

Author's note 2: Sorry for not mentioning this in my previous author's note, I just wanted to differentiate it from the other. All of my fanfictions, unless otherwise noted, aren't going to be close to or have to possibility to make them canon. By that, I mean that I'm not even going to try to link some things together. I'm stepping outside the lines to make my stories go as planned, but I won't even try to let it have a chance to be considered canon. Similarly, unless otherwise noted, many of my stories, even if they include the same characters, might be contained in seperate universes entirely, so if a character that I want for a different story dies, I may be able to use them again in a different unrelated story. Thank you again.

Author's note 3: This probably seems really unprofessional of me, but a third author's note. I am really sorry, but this is important. So, I will be using really exact terms in some points of the story, and if there are any that you don't know, please google it as it will appear quite a few times. To get you started, if any of these terms you don't know, promptly google them now as they are going to appear countless times in the overall story. Arwing, Landmaster, Blue Marine, Starfox, Starwolf, Great Fox, barrel roll (I know it's not actually a barrel roll, but for the sake of please, just let me say barrel roll for the rolling technique), and G-Diffuser. Just a heads up, if I say "pocket G-Diffuser", I am referring to the reflector you can use in Super Smash Bros., Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Smash Bros. Melee by pressing B-Down.

The Lylat System. A few years afterwards from the Lylat Wars (Nintendo 64 game), a loosely used term to describe the time that Andross tried to come to power and took over the Lylat System. He was stopped by a team of mercenaries called Starfox, who defeated Andross and his armies nearly single-handedly. Now, an unknown enemy has been causing havoc and destruction, and as tensions rise, a new war may begin.

Peppy Hare sat at the command terminal of the Great Fox, looking over past strategies of Fox and the rest of the team, trying to determine what worked best and what to change in the future. He woite down notes about certain choices that Fox made, and the aftermaths and consenquenses of them. Suddenly, a summons appeared over the terminal, turning off all the notes and footage that Peppy had up. "Wha..?!" Peppy exclaimed, jumping up from his seat, but then noticed that the message was from General Pepper.

Falco walked in and said, "Geez old man, what's up? What's the big deal?" He looked up sees the message, still hovering over the terminal. He let out a low whistle. "Another summons from Pepper? What is it this time?"

"Well, based off of past experience, it's probably another war. You really have to check the news more often, Falco. Say, weren't you in that last one, come to think of it?" It was Fox this time, strutting in as though he owned the place... which, in a sense, he did. He was the leader after all, and in his eyes that made him the rightful owner of all that was in the Great Fox, living things aside.

A metallic voice rang out from the side. "Evaluation of the message states that it's a party invitation. Evidently, they have created a holiday to be held every five years in honor of you. Corneria would be honored for you to make a speech. If you choose to accept, you have three weeks to prepare." It was ROB 64, an odd sort of robot, but helpful nonetheless. "Should I bring in Slippy to tell him as well? He appears to be working on the Arwings. It is likely that he is updating their weaponry and shielding."

In reply, Falco answered for everyone, "Just send him a message. I don't think I can deal with something that annoying right now."

"Understood. Commencing message."

Peppy had a puzzled look on his face. "Peppy," Fox inquired. "What's with the look?"

Peppy turned to Fox and said, "Well, you should know, based off your quip about checking the news you made earlier." Fox started to sputter a reply, but Peppy cut him off. "You see, there have been news reports of military equipment, robots, automated turrets, even some manual turrets, you name it, as long as it has some kind of weapon it's been going haywire and causing destruction. So far there haven't been any deaths, but still."

"So you're saying that we should go and take out whatever's causing that? Really Peppy, you don't need to get so worked up over..." Fox began, but Peppy interrupted once again.

"Be quiet, you fool! Fox, this must be some kind of sabotage, not just a malfunction! What I'm saying is that we must be careful, it could be a trap!" Peppy crossed his arms annoyedly and turns away. "Of all the self-confident, idiotic..."

"Who are you calling idiotic?!" Fox demanded.

"Who else could I?" shouted Peppy, whirling around angrily. "There doesn't appear to be anyone else in this arguement!"

"Guys, guys, sorry to break this up, really, prime-o entertainment here, but we still have a question on our hands; are we going to go to this thing or not?" Falco asked. "I mean, if we want to investigate, this's as good a place as any to start..."

Peppy took a deep breath and sighed audibly. "You're right for once, Falco... that is the question at hand."

Falco beamed with pride and said, "You bet I'm ri—wait, what do you mean for once?!"

Peppy ignored this and plowed on, "We should probably tell Slippy to come in now." Amidst a groan of complaint from Falco, Peppy continued, "Even though he's not the best at decision making, he's the best to decide whether or not our Arwings can take some hits if it comes to it."

"Way ahead of you, Peppy!" piped an annoyingly high voice from just outside the room. In walks a short green toad, covered in oil and grease.

"Whoa, how long have you been out there?" Falco asked, shocked.

"Long enough to know why you need me here. And in answer to your question, yes, the Arwings can take more of a beating than before, so I bet that they're prepared for whatever's out there. Not to mention that I've increased their fuel capacities, so they can boost for twice as long, and as long as you never boost, can keep a continuous movement in space for about three days without stopping."

"Impressive," said Fox, "But did you get around to that bathroom situation?"

Slippy blushed a little and looked down. "Well, there really isn't all that much room to work with, so... if you do get stranded and have to weather out the three days, I hope you can hold it in long enough for someone to find you..."

Fox is amused by this and said, "Slippy, you do know that I was joking about that, right? While it would be nice to have a bathroom aboard the Arwing, I know that it's not happening. No, what I'm more worried about right now is what our course of action is."

"Yes, of course." Peppy replied. "The way I see it, we have three options. One of them is that we don't go entirely, but I know that no one wants to do that." A few murmers of agreement all around. "We could also order the entire planet to migrate to a new planet temporarily while we investigate, but that just wouldn't be fair to them. Now, that leaves the third and final option. I was thinking that maybe..." Peppy smiled grimly, "..We could just spring the trap and see what happens. As long as we're investigating, that is one definite course of action, while ROB 64 here finds out what he can about whatever's causing the defenses to act so strangely."

"Gramps," Falco started. "I think that you may be onto something."

"I agree!" said Slippy. "That would be a great way to find out something about what we're up against."

"I guess that leaves us no other choice," Fox said with a slight smile. "Plan three it is!"

"If we go now, data shows that you will have time to go to the celebration before you begin your investigations," intoned Rob

"That decides it!" exclaimed Fox. "We're setting course for Corneria immediately!" Immediately, Rob 64 punched in some coordinates and the Great Fox began turning towards Corneria, and thus the investigation was underway.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

The next three weeks sped by, the Great Fox hurtling through space, as all the crew was busily preparing for the celebration, minus ROB 64, of course, who was making sure the Great Fox stayed on path. Fox was busy writing his speech that he was asked to make, trying not to pull all the attention to him, but having trouble doing so. Falco was preparing witty one-liners and other such things for the reception afterwards, but wasn't having much luck. Peppy was doing as much research into the MEM (Military Equipment Malfunction) as possible, and Slippy was doing a little bit more minor work on the Arwings. In seemingly no time at all, the three weeks had already passed, and ROB 64 was now making preparations to bring the Great Fox into Corneria's atmosphere. Fox had prepared his speech, but only had it half-memorized. Falco had long since given up on the one-liners. Peppy had learned that there, in fact, was nothing _to_ learn about the MEM. Slippy couldn't figure out what to add on to the Arwings, but still felt like they lacked something. And thus, in this state of complete unpreparedness, the group of mercenaries tried their best to be ready for the celebration.

"A-are you ready, guys?" asked Slippy.

"Nope, but I ain't worryin'," said Falco cockily. "My natural charm 'oughta bring us through."

"Natural charm, my tail," said Fox. "You can't charm anything smarter than table salt."

"Can it, Fox!" shouted Falco.

"Now, now," began Peppy. "There isn't any need to fight right now. Let's just go in and hope for the best."

"Affirmative," intoned ROB 64.

"Since when did you start taking sides, ROB?" Falco asked, albeit boredly. " Whatev', whatev'. What I'm really most worried about is what's our entrance going to be? I was thinking something along the lines of we all fly in on our Arwings, jump out right where the podium is, and then ROB takes care of keeping them safe."

"Well, that _would_ work, but we didn't have any practice yet, and there's no autopilot on the Arwings and ROB 64 can't remote control them," answered Slippy.

"Practice, shmactice, I can pull off something like that on the spot if someone asked me to," Falco said self-assuredly.

"Attention, Starfox team," ROB 64 interrupted. "There appears to be resistance hiding in the asteroid belt. The Great Fox cannot safely pass while this danger is still present. Scans show that the ships are very outdated, and shouldn't be hard to neutralize."

"Ah, I've been itching for some action!" exclaimed Falco. "Let's get this show on the road!"

Fox, Falco, Slippy, and Peppy all bolt down the long corridors to the hangar. Once they get there, Fox hits a button on the side of the doorway to open all the Arwing cockpits and they all jump in. "Link !" shouted Fox.

"Way ahead of ya, mouse brain," said Falco through the comm. link.

"Seriously? That's the worst one I've heard yet from you," countered Fox.

"Yeah, well, you try coming up with one on the spot!" Falco said hotly. "You oughta be grateful that I take the time for you!"

"Guys, as interesting as this is, we have work to do," said Peppy. "You're wasting time and annoying the rest of us on the channel."

"I second that!" exclaimed Slippy.

"Can it, you toad!" shouted Falco.

"Just... let's just go," said Fox tiredly. "Peppy's right, we're wasting time with all this arguing."

And with that, the team started their Arwings and flew out of the hangar. Once in space, Fox said, "Everyone check your G-Diffuser system! Make sure that Slippy didn't mess them up during his repairs, hey?"

Everyone but Slippy had a little chuckle over that. "Hey, cut me a break!" Slippy said. "You should know that I'm careful about this kind of stuff!"

No one replied; the asteroids were already coming in. Any communication between the team would be limited and likely to be cut off, so only what's important would be said. Suddenly, a star fighter rose up from behind an asteroid! Fox fired a single shot, hitting the ship head on and causing it to erupt into flames and crash into a nearby asteroid. Fox noticed that the laser that he was firing was still only a single laser; he had to remember to remind Slippy to change that later. Fox wondered why that one ship jumped the gun; there were a lot of other ships waiting behind other asteroids. Another ship came out from behind the asteroids. Looking closely, Fox saw that there was no pilot. "Don't shoot," Peppy warned. "Let's see what happens."

The ship simply flew right by. "It must have been a distraction," Fox noted, dodging around an asteroid that got a bit too close for comfort.

Suddenly, about thirty different ships appeared on Fox's radar out of nowhere and quickly began to move towards their position. "Look out! A bunch of cloaked ships are moving in!"

"What?!" shouted Falco.

"But I though these... A group with ships this outdated can't possibly have this sort of technology!" exclaims Peppy.

And he was right. One by one the dots on Fox's radar disappeared, and out the cockpit window he can see explosions in the relative distance. "What on earth is going on?!" Fox shouted.

Swarming up from around the asteroids, several ships appeared, evidently with cloaking devices on the hull to hide from radar, but not from sight. They went into three "X" formations, each with ten ships in them. "Watch out!" shouted Slippy.

Immediately, all the ships in each of the formations began firing upon the Starfox team. "Do a barrel roll!" shouted Peppy. Everyone spread out and immediately complied, the G-Diffusers helping to deflect the laser bullets coming at them. "Peppy and Slippy, you take the group on the left! Falco, you get the one on the right! I've got the middle!" Fox commanded.

Immediately, all the members went to engage against their respective groups. The cloaker ships fired off another volley of lasers, but most of them missed. Fox felt an impact and his Arwing jostled, but he didn't think anything of it and charged up his laser. Once it charged up, he locked on to the ship in the middle. Quickly checking his bomb count, full at nine, he fired off a locked on smart bomb. The formation tried to split up, but it was too late; the bomb zeroed in on its target and exploded, destroying all but three of the ships. They began to fly away, but Fox was ready. He got behind the first one and fired three shots at it. The first shot missed, but the second shot hit a wing, while the third hit the thruster. The ship, unable to steer or boost, crash landed onto an asteroid, but wasn't entirely destroyed. Fox left it be for the time being, and charged up his laser. He locked onto the next ship and fired; the cloaker ship got torn apart, flames leaping everywhere that are quickly extinguished by space's lack of air. The pilot in the last ship realized that its teammates had just been destroyed by flying straight, and tried to dart and hide around asteroids. Unfortunately for it, Fox fired approximately ten times and was able to hit it on his eighth shot, causing it to veer out of control and explode. Meanwhile, the other members were just finishing up their respective enemy groups.

Fox sighed in relief, and turned around. He saw a stream of liquid floating in front of him. Confused, he looks to see where it leads, and found that it went to his fuel tank. Looking at his fuel gauge, he watched as it steadily dropped. "Um, this is Fox. I have a bit of a problem."

"What is it, Fox? I'm almost finished, so speak up!" said Falco annoyedly.

"I took a hit to my fuel tank. Luckily the fuel didn't ignite, but in about a minute and a half I'm going to run out, and I won't have any communications, power, anything. And I don't have time enough to get back to the Great Fox." Fox was getting a little bit nervous; as far as he knew, there was no way for the rest of the team to pull him towards the Great Fox.

"Don't worry, Fox!" said Slippy. "The booster runs off of a different fuel cell as the main fuel dispenser, so if you just use that to get close to the Great Fox, you should be fine."

Fox let out a sigh of relief. "Thanks, Slippy. You really have everything thought out, don't you?" Fox turned to get a straight shot at the Great Fox. He turned on the booster and rocketed forwards, shooting any asteroid that got in his way. "Oh, by the way," Fox said. "There's a crashed and stranded ship on the asteroid with the coordinates 1023 X, 2312 Y, and 232 Z. Please pick him up and see if he's still alive so that we can ask him a few questions, maybe take a look at his ship."

"No problem, Fox," said Peppy. "We've got that under control."

"Great," replied Fox. "Meet me in the control room in five." With that, he flew into the hangar and landed the Arwing. Fox then jumped out of the cockpit and examined the fuel cell container. He let out a low whistle, wondering how Slippy would ever be able to fix it. Deciding that it wasn't his problem, he pivoted around on one foot and walked towards the command room to wait for the rest of his team.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Fox walked into the control room and sat down. "Are you not back a bit early?" inquired ROB 64.

"My fuel tank ruptured. The others will be back any minute now," answered Fox.

"Understood," replied ROB 64 in his tinny, robotic voice. He went back to typing in data and checking the status of the Great Fox.

Over the terminal, an image of Peppy appeared. "Peppy, hello! And why aren't you here at the control room?" demands Fox.

"Well, we brought in the enemy spacecraft, and we assumed that you would want to be here for the examination. Really, no need to act so rude..."

"Sorry, Peppy. My bad. I'll be there in a few minutes, just hang tight."

"Ok, Fox. See you in a few." And with that, the terminal turned off.

Fox left the control room and walked down the lonely, windowless corridors, lit only by artificial fluorescent lights. A few of them were flickering in one of the hallways. Fox made a mental note to change them before they die. A few more corridors down, and Fox reached the hangar. He saw Slippy repairing the broken fuel tank, and Peppy and Falco looking at the spacecraft. There didn't appear to be anyone in the craft, however.

"Hey, where'd the pilot go?" asked Fox.

"We have him in the storage bay. Don't worry, there's nothing in there that he can mess up," replied Peppy when he saw Fox's worried face.

"Good," said Fox. "So, what did you find out about the ship?"

"Well, according to Slippy, this model hasn't ever been seen before, and is completely unauthorized," explained Falco. "However, it looks like it's been manufactured in a high-end factory. But a look into all known factories shows no memory of making anything like this."

"Weird," said Fox.

"Yeah, but that's not even the half of it!" exclaimed Falco. "This cloaking device was also unlisted by any manufacturers! Not only that, but Peppy here did an extensive search of all of the cargo carriers going to and from Corneria, and it says that about 500 'unknown vessels' and 'radar concealing equipment' was shipped from Zoness as well! Not all together of course, but it's a cumulative total."

"It seems like someone's preparing for a war," remarked Fox.

"That seems likely," said Peppy. "This same pattern of unknown equipment shipment happened immediately before the Lylat Wars. But we can't be sure, it may just be that Corneria was updating its defenses when the MEM struck. But it seems unlikely"

"The MEM?" inquired Fox.

"It stands for Military Equipment Malfunction. I got used to using it," answered Peppy.

Across the room, Slippy had finished mending the fuel cell container, and was moving on to refueling the boost and main fuel, as well as upgrading the laser to a double laser, when he realized something. "Guys! The ceremony is in a few hours, and we still don't have anything prepared! Not only that, but Fox's Arwing doesn't have enough fuel to get there!"

"Oh my gosh, you're right, Slippy!" exclaimed Falco worriedly.

"We don't have to do anything extravagant, guys," said Fox. "We just have to make sure that we get there and make the speech, then the rest doesn't matter and we can just leave."

"Yeah, but I for one wanted to do something _exciting_, get the audience's blood pumping," said Falco disappointedly.

"If this is as much a trap as it seems to be, it just might get that blood pumping," remarked Peppy. "What I'm more worried about is that you aren't more worried that it's probably a trap."

"Fine. But I still need a way to get there in the first place, even if I can't use my Arwing," said Fox. "That's why I'm going to take the Landmaster."

"That's well enough. At least it will get you to the ceremony," replied Peppy.

A message boomed over the speakers. "ROB 64 reporting. The ceremony will begin in five hours. It is recommended that you depart soon."

"ROB makes a good point. We should go now if we want to be on time. Do you have a way to drop off the landmaster with the Arwings?" asked Fox.

"Yeah, sure, no problem," replied Slippy. "We can just tie some cords to the Arwings to carry the Landmaster, and then detatch them once we arrive. Easy as that!"

The team decided upon that plan of action, and after the preparations were complete, they started on their way to Corneria through the asteroid belt. Every now and then an asteroid would get close to hitting the Landmaster or an Arwing, but the team managed to avoid them in time. They eventually got to the atmosphere and began a slow descent; the Landmaster was unused to intense heat like the kind that it would experience upon fast reentry to the atmosphere. The Arwings got down close enough to the surface that, with a little bit of precision work using the Landmaster's bottom rockets, it could touch down safely. The rest of the team in the Arwings stayed nearby, although they could go much faster than the Landmaster, as it made its slow but steady progress. The Landmaster had not yet gotten any updating from Slippy, so it didn't have as near much fuel or defense as the Arwings, but it would still be fine for about eight hours of continuous driving, so the team wasn't worried about that.

Four hours later, and the team finally got to the place that the ceremony was to be held. It was in the center of the city, with buildings everywhere, and busy people all over. A few people stopped to stare at the Arwings and the Landmaster; it was a rather odd sight for the middle of a city. The team parked their vehicles outside the place that the ceremony was to be held, and walked in. They had walked into the back to keep people from knowing that they had arrived and getting too excited, at least until the ceremony started. An hour of preparations later, and it was time. General Pepper walked out onto the stage. From what Fox could glimpse, because he didn't have much time to check the outside of the building, the place that the ceremony was being held was a large black dome, able to seat about 20,000 people, with video cameras all over. The stage was a small semi-circle that spanned only about a third of the diameter of the dome, complete with a podium and line of microphones on it, each one with the insignia of a news broadcaster. "...And here are the brave individuals who made victory possible all those years ago. Please welcome those who need no introduction... Starfox!" said General Pepper. Fox walked in, with Peppy and Falco on his left, and Slippy to his right. Fox raised a hand to shield his eyes from the bright lights in his eyes, but he quickly adjusted to the bright light and put his hand down before he reached the podium.

"Thank you for that introduction, General, however unneeded it may be," Began Fox to some laughter. "Today, all these years ago, the-" Fox was interrupted by an explosion behind him, causing shrapnel from the back of the dome to fly forwards into the crowd. Part of the stage had been destroyed by impacts from the shrapnel, and the crowd was screaming, running around, and a few members of security were trying to help those who had been injured and trapped under rubble. Fox turned around, and was relieved to find that his team was unhurt, though a bit shaken up. But what really grabbed his attention was the huge hole in the back of the dome, looking as though a very powerful missle had hit it. Standing in the hole, there was a robot about three times Fox's size, scattered with red markings, with a missle launcher on its left arm and a chaingun on its right, the latter of which was aimed towards the crowd and was about to fire.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Author's Note: Sorry for the jump from present to past tense. I wasn't paying attention to my tenses when writing this chapter, so I decided just to leave it. The rest of the story is going to be in past tense as well, as I find it so much easier to write in. Sorry for any confusion.

Fox jumped forwards, shouting "No!" He pulled out his pocket G-Diffuser, a small octagon that easily fits in his hand, while turning towards the robot and extending his arm with the pocket G-Diffuser, pressing the two buttons on the side immediately to the right and left of the topmost side. The pocket G-Diffuser created an energy barrier that could deflect lasers, but not physical attacks. The robot fired off several shots out of its chaingun arm; they all bounced off of Fox's energy barrier.

"Fox, you fool! Not here!" exclaimed Peppy as the reflected bullets sprayed wildly in front of Fox out the hole made by the robot, tearing into buildings and destroying the road. None of the lasers had hit the robot, unfortunately, so it was still in full working order.

Fox turned off the pocket G-Diffuser and put it away, but took out his blaster gun instead. The robot aimed its rocket launcher down at Fox, but he rolled underneath the robot to get behind it. Immediately after the roll, Fox shot several rounds into the robot's back, making dark scorch marks across its diameter. Fox smiled slightly, lowered his gun, and waited. However, the robot did not fall down, defeated, as Fox thought it would, but instead turned around and prepped its weapons again.

"Fox! Look out!" shouted Falco as he dove and tackled Fox to the ground. Fox began to say something indignantly, but an explosion where he just was silenced him as flames flew in all directions.

Falco got up off of Fox and said, "Sorry about that. I just saw the robot about to fire, and thought that it wouldn't be good if you were still where you were standing."

"Thanks, Falco." Replied Fox. "I guess that makes one less favor that you owe me." Fox smiled briefly, and then turned his attention back on the robot.

Fox raised his hand up to shoot, but realized that he wasn't holding on to it anymore! He scanned the ground frantically, and saw it lying on the ground in front of the robot. He started for it, but the robot's foot stepped on the gun while it was walking, making a sinister cracking sound. When it lifted its foot, the gun was crushed and broken, parts lying around the main body.

Fox was at first shocked, then frightened. Without that blaster, he was completely defenseless! He quickly scanned the dome for something that he could use. It was completely devoid of anything useful, and was in fact almost empty except for a few people still trying to help people out of the wreckage. Fox looked over at the citizens and rescue forces still in the dome. He had to make a decision. Get the Landmaster and destroy the robot, possibly saving millions in exchange for the few people in the dome? Or try and fight the robot without any weapons whatsoever? Fox decided to at least _try_ to fight without any weapons. If he brought in the Landmaster, it would be certain doom for the people still in the dome.

"Yraaaaah!" shouted Fox as he ran towards the robot.

"Fox! What do you think you're doing?!" exclaimed Peppy.

The robot lowered its chaingun arm toward Fox, and fired a stream of shots at him. Fox dodged to the side, while still running towards the robot. He then jumped around to the side of the robot, and while it was still turning towards him, Fox jumped onto its arm, which was the missile launcher one. The robot tried to throw Fox off, but he was too fast, and jumped into the air. While in midair, Fox kicked at the robot's head. The kick connected, and the robot was sent staggering towards the edge of the stage. It fell off the stage, destroying the chaingun arm under its own weight as it hit the ground. Fox then shouted, "Slippy! Shoot into the robot's missile launcher, now!"

Slippy was startled, and while he was pulling out his blaster his fingers slipped and dropped it. As he bent down to pick it up, he accidentally kicked it out of his reach. "Oh no!" exclaimed Slippy.

Luckily enough, it slid right to Fox, who snatched it up, aimed quickly, and took three shots into the launcher arm. The first two shots missed, but the third shot met its mark; the missile that was ready to be launched. The laser detonated the missile, and the explosion tore apart the rest of the robot. Fox relaxed then, seeing that the robot had been completely and utterly destroyed. Fox put down the blaster and jumped down, scanning the wreckage. There was no longer anyone in the dome; they all must have finished the rescue and fled during the end of the fight. Fox found what he was looking for, in what appeared to be half of the robot's head and a few sparking wires lying about; the hardware chip. Fox picked it up and pocketed it to look at later.

"Peppy!" Fox shouted. "What can you and Slippy find out about this robot?"

"Well," Peppy called back. "It is definitely a Corneria Military robot. But its fighting pattern and overall behavior doesn't appear to be the standard Corneria Military's robot fighting code. It is very likely that it was subject to the MEM when it began the attack."

"Thanks, Peppy." Replied Fox. He started thinking for a minute; if the robot was subject to the MEM, and someone programmed it to attack right when Fox was off guard onstage, ready to give his speech.

Suddenly, Fox heard screaming, and Falco shouting "Fox, get your tail over here!"

Fox jumped up onto the stage, and said "What, what's happening?" He looked outside the hole left by the robot to find a veritable army of other ones that were exactly like the first, causing destruction around the city. "Oh, no..." moaned Fox.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

After Fox's initial shock wore off, he noticed that there were also Cornerian aircraft and footsoldiers assisting the said robots, the aircrafting bombing the buildings and streets, the footsoldiers cleaning up after others. It was a complete massacre. "This... This isn't a malfunction," said Fox. "It's not even a virus or hack. You can't hack soldiers."

Peppy, Slippy, and Falco ran up behind him. "Yes, we know," replied Peppy. "But innocent lives are at stake! We have to end this _now_, and we can question just what happened later. Hurry!"

Peppy's words snapped Fox out of his melancholy. "Yes, yes, you're right. Let's go."

The team clambered into their respective vehicles; Fox in his Landmaster, and the rest in their Arwings. The Arwings took off into the air. "Fox! We've got the guys in the air. You worry about them ground forces, alright?" said Falco.

"Yeah, I know," replied Fox. "Just get out their and hold them off, alright?"

Immediately, the team in the Arwings went after the opposing aircraft. Several were shot down before they realized the Arwings' presence, and a dogfight ensued. The arwings had better shielding, armor, and weaponry, tearing through the enemy ranks, but they were still outnumbered approximately 18:1. Even through these seemingly impossible odds, they pressed onwards, keeping them distracted from Fox, who would be vulnerable to an aerial attack.

Meanwhile, on the ground, Fox was tearing through the enemies, crushing the footsoldiers under his treads and blasting the robots to bits. The robots were slow to react, and they weren't programmed to defend themselves, and instead to destroy buildings and cause damage in general. The footsoldier's weaponry was insuffiecient to cause any damage to the Landmaster, and while they caused some small dents and scratches, the shielding meter never lowered at all. Suddenly, in the combat above him, a lone aircraft broke out and careened towards Fox, firing streams of lasers from its guns! They tore into the Landmaster, making small explosions and tossing chunks of metal everywhere. The aircraft pulled up and stopped firing momentarily. The Landmaster's shielding was down to 28%, and the ship was coming around for another line of shots. Fox lifted his Lanmaster's cannon to aim at the aircraft coming at him, fired, and missed. A ways off from behind the aircraft, the shot hit the side of a building, resulting in an explosion that knocked the building off balance. It toppled over into the streets, crushing soldier and robot alike. Right as the aircraft coming towards Fox was about to fire, a stray piece of rock from the building crashed right into the cockpit window, shattering it and sending the aircraft careening into the ground next to Fox. It knocked Fox's landmaster sideways, rolling over and landing on its side.

The thrusters on the side and back were crushed by the explosion and following roll, so Fox couldn't get the Landmaster back up. He tried opening the cockpit, but it was stuck, so he shifted in his seat so that his back was to the seat. Then, he violently launched his feet out at the cockpit door. BANG. The door shook a little. BANG. Fox heard a crack from the door. BANG. The door almost broke. BANG! The entire door flew off of its hinges, landing a few feet away. Fox grabbed for his pistol, then remembered that he lost it in his fight with the first robot. Fox jumped out of the Landmaster and raised his fists; if there were any enemies nearby, they would know that he'd survived. Fox turned around in a slow circle. There was nobody nearby but a few robots, still destroying some mostly empty buildings. The ground was littered with bodies, rubble, and blood.

Fox walked up to a fallen soldier and took his weapon; a standard issue laser machine gun. The soldier groaned, and Fox stomped on his face to shut him up. Fox then spoke into his comm., "My Landmaster's stuck. I'm going to have to go it on foot. Anything I can do down here now?"

Fox heard a reply from Peppy, "Well, you could go over to sector 3B. There's a building over there that just had some kind of small, one person spacecraft land on it."

"Great Peppy, except that he doesn't have his Landmaster. Which means no radar. Which means that _he has no idea where sector 3B is,_" replied Falco somewhat annoyedly. "Listen Fox, if you want to get to that area, just go forward about three blocks and take a right. You'll be there then."

"Thanks," answered Fox curtly.

After a little while of walking, Fox got to the end of the blocks, the fallen soldier's gun still in tow. Fox didn't know whether they were still alive or if they had died of their wounds yet. Either way, they wouldn't be conscious to know of it. He turned right, as Falco said to, and saw a lone unharmed building. "I'll put my money on this being the one," Fox mused. Fox walked up to the door and tried it. It opened easily. Fox entered and began up the stairs. With this battle going on, it wouldn't be safe to take the elevator, in case something happened. As soon as Fox got up the first flight of stairs, he heard the all too familiar sound of an aircraft going down. An impact shook the building, and Fox ran back down the stairs. In front of the enterance, there was a Cornerian aircraft blocking the way. Flames crackled and popped from the wreckage, burning what remained to a pile of melted parts.

Fox went back up the stairs. At each flight, he checked the rooms to see if he could find whoever was manning the spacecraft that landed on top the building. No luck on any of the floors, until he got to the top. He began his search as usual, getting into a flow, when he heard a loud shot from a few rooms down. He went over to investigate, then realized that they likely were not friendly. Instead, he went into the room immediately next to the room that he heard the gunshot in, and pressed his gun to the wall, thinking to fire through it and get whoever was on the other side. He squeezed the trigger. And again. And again. Nothing happened. Fox looked at the ammo check, and saw that it was out of ammo. Fox kicked himself for not checking earlier.

Another shot from the room. Fox jolted back to the present, and began towards the doorway. He kept the gun with him; it may be good for a bluff, if need be. Fox braced himself next to the empty doorframe, and leapt in. Inside the room was Pigma, a member of Starwolf and former member of Starfox holding a sniper rifle and firing at the members of Starfox who were currently in Arwings. "Pigma!" Fox exclaimed.

Pigma turned towards Fox, mild surprise on his face. "Ah, Fox. I was wondering where you were when your Arwing wasn't flying around in the fray," he said with a smile that looked demented on his pig face. "But now that you're here, I can just fin-" Pigma stopped short, and his smile dropped off his face when he saw Fox's stolen machine gun, pointed straight at him.

"That's right. You can finish me right now," Fox mocked.

Then, Pigma started laughing. "Go ahead!" Fox lowered the gun in surprise. "That's right! You won't. As long as we're in spacecraft and you can't see my face, you're fine with my probable death. But now that we're face to face..." Pigma let his words trail off. "Now, if you'll excuse me..." Pigma said, looking back through his scope.

Fox glanced quickly in the direction that Pigma was aiming. Undoubtedly, he was gunning for Peppy. Fox spoke into his comm. link quickly. "Peppy, Slippy, Falco, quickly, get out of there! Pigma's here, he's going to shoot you down!"

"What?" replied Peppy, but it wasn't a surprised what, it was a what of hard hearing. While the others began to bring their Arwings out of the area, Peppy stayed in the fray. "It's loud up here, and I can't hear like I used to..."

Fox couldn't speak. He didn't have time to speak. He could only watch in horror as Pigma pulled the trigger, as the powerful, focused laser left the barrel of the sniper and moved, in a perfect line, through Peppy's Arwing's cockpit window and through the back of the Arwing. It veered a bit to the right, then an explosion blew the entire Arwing apart, shrapnel flying everywhere. Pigma chortled in his horrible, porcine way. "Ah, Peppy, old pal, rest in PIECES!" More chortling.

Fox dropped the machine gun; he didn't know that he was still holding it. Rage in his eyes, he stepped towards Pigma. "Oh, you're angry now, are you? Hold on, I'll get you in a second... Hee hee haaaaa!"

Fox grabbed the sniper rifle from Pigma's hands and threw it to the side. Then he grabbed Pigma by the throat. "Have you no regret?! You were part of Starfox, along with Peppy! You worked together! Watched each other's backs! And now you kill him, and.. and you LAUGH?!" Fox was shaking in his rage now, as Pigma clawed at Fox's hands around his throat. "You... You are the worst kind of person. You don't deserve to ever have existed!" Fox, in a burst of utter rage, threw Pigma out the window that Pigma was sniping out of. Pigma screamed as he fell towards the ground, but was cut short with a sickening sound between a thud and a splat. Fox didn't look down. He simply started downstairs. He needed to leave this place, before he was sick.

Fox got to the stairway. It was filled with fire from the aircraft that crashed into the doorway earlier, leaving no exit. Fox was filled with fear, when suddenly he realized; the spacecraft that landed on the top of the building! It was probably still there. Fox ran up to the roof, and burst out. Outside, he could hear the crackling and snapping of the fire much better, and flames leaped up around the side of the building. Fox ran towards the spacecraft which, in fact, was still there. It was a Wolfen, obviously Pigma's. Fox wondered why just Pigma was here, as Starwolf usually traveled in a group. However, he didn't have time to think of that now; the building's structures were burnt to a crisp, and the tower was already starting to tilt. It would fall down any second now. Fox tried the cockpit window, which was fortunately unlocked. Fox jumped in, closed the cockpit, and started up the Wolfen. It was a mess, making it hard to move around in, but fortunately the control layout was almost identical to the Arwing's. Fox took off in the Wolfen and flew off. The building crumbled behind him. Immediately, Fox heard voices on his comm.

"Fox! You were cut off for a while! Where were you? What happened? And... are you flying a Wolfen?" asked Falco.

"Whoa, a Wolfen!" exclaimed Slippy. "I've been meaning to examine one for a while, but I haven't been able to get my hands on any."

"Guys, shut up," Fox said gloomily, the sadness of loss now setting in. "Peppy... Peppy is dead."

TO BE CONTINUED


End file.
